Sunday, December 14, 2014

Book Review - Travelling Lighter by Suma Varughese

Suma Varughese’s second book, Travelling Lighter is more personal than her first book, which was
a collection of her columns from 2001 - 2009, in Life Positive.

In this book, which again is a collection of her columns
from 2006 – 2013, she recalls how she left her high profile job as Editor of
one of India’s most popular life-style magazine, called Society, to take the jump into the unknown, as she took up the
challenge of becoming the Bureau Chief of India’s first alternate magazine,
Life Positive, in 1997. A hard decision in the face of what she was leaving behind
her, Life Positive, among her own
fraternity of journalists and publishers, was looked upon with doubt at that
moment, and one did expect it to last not over a year. But there was a
conspicuous growth of people who were hungry for a spiritual quest and waking
up to a different dimension, who lapped up the magazine, making it one of the
most successful magazine in that genre in India. The ‘inner journey’ had begun
for Suma too. The ‘whimsical decision’ turned out to be a winner for Suma Varughese,
who is now the Editor of the magazine.

Travelling Lighter is
therefore a series of short, crisp accounts of Suma’s own journey with faith
and the bold revelation of what day after day any Self-seeking individual is
pushed towards – the act of living surrendered to a Higher Power.

The book is also an intimate revelation of a primal
relationship she has had with her mother, the later Aleykutty Varughese, who
passed away only a year ago in February. The living relation being the two
ladies, one, the one who gave birth and the one who grew up to write this book,
is a symbiotic one, which reveals that after years of being looked after by her
mother, in her mother’s last years, Suma had the chance to return, to some
extent the love and care she had received all these years from her. The book
also deals with difficult emotions that one encounters on a spiritual path, emotions
that weigh upon our path as seekers. When we leave the bondage of these
emotions, we let go of the power they have upon us. Suma has had her share,
with arthritis, asthma, IBS ( irritable bowel syndrome), which link themselves
to emotions and in case of a spiritual seeker, become the base matter in the
emotional body to release and let go, in order to overcome the physical
byproduct of negative emotions. The stark honest accounts move you, because,
the author, is a well-known journalist, with an enormous following. But as
Devdutt Pattanaik, CBO, Fortune Group, says, “Suma’s columns are a seeker’s
personal diary. The lofty becomes routine. The universal becomes particular.
The infinite comes home. Jargon dissolves and a very lived wisdom emerges.”

The most poignant part of the book for me is the account of
how, she along with her mother bought their home in Bombay. Suma had just left
her secure job to take a jump into the unknown. But just then, with whatever
she had collected and what she received from her mother, with a little help
from her sister and a money lender, together the two ladies, daughter and
mother bought the first home they would ever have in Bombay. It spoke of
struggle and brought to mind the well researched fact that women can take risks
in their lives and can initiate life changing decisions, when they have a roof
over their head or a piece of land, they can call their own. This security
surpasses none other in a woman’s life.

As the book progresses, it turns into a workbook with blank
pages to note “Your Thoughts” which I found delightful.

I see the book therefore as one that can not only be read,
but can become one with a practical use, thus taking it beyond its pages.
Indeed, it is a book that can be used to be read out in a like-minded gathering
and cogitated upon, to discover and journey into one’s on Self. And I wish it a
Bon Voyage to that end.

Suma Varughese has informed us that through December 21,
2012, as fellow travelers on planet earth, we have transited the gateway to
Divine Feminine consciousness that is now slated to influence the world. We can
expect to have inherited better and balanced times.

Let us welcome and be the change!

About the author:
Suma Varughese is the editor of Life
Positive, India’s premier body-mind-spirit magazine. A veteran journalist with
34 years of experience, she was former editor of Society, a lifestyle magazine. A seeker in spirit, her first book Travelling Light received much acclaim
from readers and resulted in Travelling
Lighter. She lives in Mumbai, the only city in the country that she can
bear to live in.